The present invention will be described with particular reference to a machine for wrapping newspapers, magazines and the like for home delivery, postage or sale through vending machines. However, it will be appreciated that the device may be suitable for wrapping other suitable articles and no limitation is intended thereby.
Articles such as newspapers and magazines are typically wrapped in a protective coating for home delivery or postage. A delivery agent typically throws home delivered newspapers towards a home residence. It may be some hours before the recipient collects the newspaper. Such newspapers must be bound in some way to minimize the likelihood of the paper being blown away. Traditionally, newspapers are rolled and bound by a paper sleeve or in some cases a rubber band. However, should a paper be exposed to rain or snow, the paper is subject to water damage.
In order to protect home delivered newspapers from the environment, they are often placed in a plastics envelope or are wrapped in a protective plastics film. Placing newspapers in plastics envelopes is conducted manually whereby a paper is manually folded and placed in an open ended plastic sleeve. Such a procedure is labour intensive. Further, the open end can still allow ingress of moisture into the paper should it be exposed to the atmosphere.
Wrapping machines that roll and wrap newspapers in a protective film are known. Such machines have a pair of rolling forks and a lower rolling bed. An edge of a newspaper is inserted between the two forks and rotation of the forks relative to the rolling bed winds the paper about the forks. Such machines also have an overhead film roll. A feed arm inserts and edge of the film into the nip formed as the paper begins to be rolled by the forks. At the end of the rolling step a hot wire cuts the film. The rolled and wrapped newspaper is ejected from the forks by an ejector arm. The resulting product is a tightly rolled newspaper protected by a plastics film.
There are a number of disadvantages with existing newspaper wrapping machines from both the operators and consumers point of view. First conventional wrapping machines generate a significant amount of noise. Typically the distributing newsagent wraps newspapers for home delivery on demand. Many newsagents have premises within residential areas. The noise emitted by conventional newspaper wrapping machines often exceeds acceptable noise levels.
Second, wrapping a newspaper in this manner still leaves the ends of the paper exposed. Thus where a newspaper be left out in the rain it can still become wet and damaged. A further disadvantage is that the paper and film are tightly rolled and wound together. Thus it is often difficult for a customer to separate the paper from the film. Further in cases where some time has elapsed between rolling and unwrapping, the paper retains its rolled state and is difficult to flatten out for reading.
Vending machines used for the sale of newspapers generally operate on an honest system. On insertion of the requisite fee or credit the user is provided with access to a storage container for the newspapers and is permitted to remove such number of newspapers corresponding to the fee or credit inserted. In use, and without suitable monitoring, it is open for the user to remove more newspapers than permitted.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device for wrapping an article such as a newspaper or magazine that may overcome one or more of the above disadvantages or provide the public with a useful or commercial choice.